Myths About Charging Cell Phone Batteries – Debunked!

(1) You have to drain your battery before charging

A common myth is that cell phone batteries have a memory, and partial charges will eventually diminish the capacity of your battery.

This is a myth. Frequently charging your smartphone will not damage the battery.

(2) You have to use your factory charger

Many people still believe that a third party charger will damage your battery over time. Again, this isn’t true. So long as the charger you are using is in proper working order, your cell phone battery will be fine.

(3) You can’t leave your cell phone charging overnight

The rationale behind this myth is that continuing to charge a fully charged battery will damage it. This, believe it or not, is true.

That said, most smartphones are clever enough to realize when the battery is fully charged. At that point, the phone will stop charging the battery, even if it is plugged in all night.

So go ahead and let your cell phone stay on the charger all night — it won’t hurt a thing.

(4) You shouldn’t use your cell phone while it’s charging

Think about it this way — even if you aren’t physically touching your phone while it charges, your phone still has processes running in the background, right?

So it really doesn’t matter whether you use your phone while it charges or not. Sure, it may not charge as quickly if you’ve got the screen on, but it won’t hurt your battery in any fashion or diminish the quality of the charge itself.

(5) You should always charge to 100% before using your cell phone

This is a crazy myth with no evidence to support it.

Generally speaking, smartphone batteries work best between a 40-80% remaining charge. It will not harm your battery in any way if you use your cell phone with less than a 100% charge.

(6) Your phone will hold a charge longer in a cool environment

While it is true that heat will damage your cell phone battery, smartphones generally operate best at room temperature. Trying to expose your cell phone to cool air — or worse, attempting to freeze the battery — will only hurt your battery life, not extend it.

A laptop on it’s own is not enough to successfully do all the things you probably want to do. We’ve put together a list of the accessories every laptop should have, and why!

The 6 Accessories Every Laptop Should Have

Charger

Having a charger is the biggest no brainer for a laptop, right? How can you use your laptop for extended periods of time without an adequate power supply.

Some laptop chargers are convertible so that you can have a long or short cord depending on if you’re at your house (and close to an outlet) or out in public and need additional length to reach a place to plug it into a wall. Some chargers even have cases of their own to protect them!

Be careful when plugging your laptop into the charger. Too much force can cause problems that damage the plug. In the event of damage, Target PC offers laptop plug repair.

Keyboard Cover

Not everybody uses a keyboard cover, but everybody really should.

Think about all the times you’ve eating something messy while looking something up online? Or you’re at a coffee shop getting work done and crumbs from your cookie drop into the spaces between your keys?

There’s an easy way to prevent this unnecessary laptop damage, and it includes keeping your keys adequately covered from inevitable messes by you or others who may use your computer!

Another item to consider is a screen protector, though these are not as widely used. In the event that your laptop screen is beyond repair, Target PC can help fix it!

Hard Case

Hopefully you’re more careful with your laptop than your phone. You can drop your phone a bunch of times without any serious damage, but the same can not be said about your laptop.

One hard drop can absolutely ruin your laptop for future use or resale value. Even a small bump can do damage, which is why these cases are included as accessories every laptop should have.

To stack the odds in your favor, invest in a hard cover case that snaps on your laptop and gives it additional protection.

Laptop Bag

When transporting a laptop, you should provide as much care as possible. That’s why having a bag specifically to be used for your laptop comes highly recommended.

Women may seek a different solution along these lines, as most already carry bags of some type. Our suggestion for them is next.

Laptop Sleeve

If you’re a woman, you’re probably already carrying a purse with you everywhere you go. In your case, it may not make sense to have a separate laptop bag. Instead, invest in a good laptop sleeve to protect your laptop from the inner contents of your purse. Laptop sleeves are fun to customize according to your individual likes and tastes.

Wireless Mouse

Although laptops have some kind of built-in mouse or track pad, it’s usually beneficial to have another mouse that’s easier to physically move around. Even better is a wireless mouse.

Wireless mice are less bulky and less likely to get tangled up with other laptop accessories. Plus, they send a message that you’re not stuck in the past as technologies are rapidly changing.

To learn more about laptop accessories or for any number of laptop repairs, send us a message online or call (440) 725-0642.

Now that you’ve seen the accessories every laptop should have, do you need to add some to your shopping list? Or are there any we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments!

1. Disable Vibration Notifications

Many of us prefer to have our phones vibrate rather than ring, but did you know that vibrations consumes more battery power?

Turn your phone to silent or keep the ringer on low, but do not set it to vibrate for all incoming notifications.

Better yet, disable all vibrations in your notifications settings.

2. Decrease Screen Brightness

Dim your screen as much as possible.

Many smartphones have an automatic setting to adjust screen brightness — and while this is a better option than leaving the brightness set to full, you can probably get away with manually dimming it further.

3. Decrease Screen Timeout Setting

The timeout setting refers to how long your smartphone screen will stay illuminated before it powers off.

In most cases, you can decrease this setting such that your screen will power off in fewer seconds following your last interaction with the smartphone.

This is one of the simplest ways to extend smartphone battery life.

4. Turn It Off

As you may know, powering up your smartphone consumes plenty of battery life — but so does leaving it on for several hours when it isn’t going to be in use.

If you are heading into class or a meeting and know that you won’t be able to check your phone, consider totally powering it down.

5. Close Apps

If you are finished using an app, close it rather than allowing it to continue to run in the background.

Background apps drain a lot of battery power, so if you’re not likely to remember to close them — download an app that will.

So-called task killer apps will automatically close other apps that haven’t been used within a fixed period of time.

6. Disable Location Functions

Most smartphones are equipped with location / GPS services. These can be very taxing on battery life, especially if you are in a more remote location.

Disable all location functions when not in use.

7. Disable Notifications

Many apps, including social media and news apps, bombard us all day long with notifications. And while some of them we may need to receive in a timely fashion, others can be disabled.

Each time a notification comes in, our smartphones will generally illuminate and play a sound — not to mention these apps need to run continuously to generate the notifications as they happen.

What’s your best tip to extend smartphone battery life?

Do you have any other suggestions to improve smartphone battery life? Drop your ideas in the comments below.

To get the best out of your laptop, you need to clean it.

Most of us depend on our laptops. We use them for work. We use them to keep in touch with friends and family on social media. We use them to make purchases and find the best restaurants.

But how long has it been since you cleaned your laptop? Never? That’s probably true for many of us. Experts recommend that you clean your laptop every three to six months, depending on how much use it gets.

The steps in this article will tell you how to do it. It will take you about an hour to do it right. But you’ll be glad you did!

Have your cleaning supplies ready.

You’ll need to gather some supplies for this task:

a can of compressed air and a “straw” that comes with it

two or three clean, soft rags

a lint-free screen cloth

isopropyl alcohol (or electronic cleaning wipes)

cotton swabs

white vinegar

distilled water

a vacuum cleaner with a hose

a small Phillips screwdriver

plenty of space on a clean kitchen counter or workbench

Follow these 7 steps to clean your laptop.

Here are the seven steps that will show you how to clean your laptop safely. You need to do them in order. It will take you about an hour.

Step 1: Power down and unplug. Then clean the battery.

Turn off your laptop completely. Unplug the charging cord and any USB cords. Remove the battery. Remove the mouse, any discs or CDs, USB sticks, etc. Anything that’s sticking out or connected to your laptop should be removed.

Take a lint-free cloth and dip it in isopropyl alcohol and clean the metal contacts that connect your battery to your computer. This will keep the electricity flowing efficiently.

Step 2: Clean the keyboard.

Tilt the can of compressed air and spray the keyboard keys. Use short, gentle sprays. Try to herd the crumbs and dirt in one direction to get them out of the spaces between the keys. After you’ve sprayed and removed as much as you can, turn on the vacuum cleaner and use the hose to suck up the rest of the dirt particles from the keyboard.

Next, dab a clean, soft rag in isopropyl alcohol and gently rub the keys and touchpad to get off any stains or smears you see on them. Turn the cloth frequently to use a clean place as you work.

Step 3: Clean the outer casing.

Turn the lint-free cloth to a clean spot and dab it in the isopropyl alcohol again. Then clean the outer casing of the laptop. Rub gently to remove fingerprints, dirt, and grime. Turn the cloth frequently to make sure you are using a clean place as you rub.

You could use electronic cleaning wipes instead of the lint-free cloth and isopropyl alcohol if you prefer.

Step 4: Clean the screen.

In a small bowl, pour ½ cup white vinegar and ½ cup distilled water to make a cleaning solution for the LCD screen of your laptop.

Dip a lint-free cloth in the solution and gently wipe the screen. Turn the cloth and dip it again when it becomes dirty. Let the screen dry.

Step 5: Clean the fan.

It’s important to clean the fan regularly to prevent it from becoming plugged with dust. If your laptop is heating up and shutting down, then you may have too much dust inside it.

Turn your laptop over and look for an air vent on the outer edge. The air vent will be covered by an access panel. If you unscrew this panel, with a small Phillips screwdriver, you should see the fan. If not, you will need to search elsewhere for another panel. Or your fan may not be accessible.

If you can access the fan, use your can of compressed air to blow out the dust on the fan blades and in the fan cavity. You may want to take the laptop outside to do this. If you have never cleaned the fan before, there may be quite a bit of dust, and you don’t want to blow this into your living or work area. Be sure you also spray the intake and outtake louvers so that air can flow smoothly in and out.

Step 6: Clean the ports.

To clean the ports on your laptop, wipe the inside of each port with a dry cotton swab, and then spray each GENTLY with the can of compressed air.

Step 7: Put your laptop back together.

Let your laptop dry thoroughly after cleaning all the parts as we’ve described. Then put it back together. Now you have a clean machine that should serve you well until the next cleaning.

Recently we published a post on buying a laptop or desktop computer. The primary reason you would consider buying a laptop is for its portability.

Sure, a laptop could be plugged in all the time… but if that were the case, you really would get more value from buying a desktop computer.

Of course, the downside to portability is that laptops run on a battery with a limited amount of power.

If you are looking to extend laptop battery life, here are nine tips that ought to do the trick.

1. Enable Power Saving Mode

Most laptops are designed with some sort of power saving function. By enabling it, your system will instantaneously trade off some its power in exchange for preserving the life of your battery.

2. Disable Unused Features

You can extend battery life by disabling features you are not currently using. A few examples include:

Devices connected by USB

External hard drives

WiFi and Bluetooth

Any time a hardware component is in use, it kills your battery faster.

3. Decrease Brightness & Volume

Extend laptop battery life by diminishing the brightness of your screen. Most laptops are designed with hot keys to do this. After all, the display on your laptop drains the battery rather quickly at full brightness.

You may also wish to consider muting the volume. Playing sounds through your laptop speakers will also cause your battery life to drain faster.

4. Close Programs

If you are not currently using a program, close it. Be sure to fully shut it down through the Task Manager.

Take a peek at the programs loaded in your System Tray, as well. Those minimized programs may be draining a lot of system resources on the back end. As a result, your laptop battery dies faster.

5. Do One Thing at a Time

Sure, you might like having a dozen browser tabs open, working in Excel, streaming live music, all while uploading a new video to YouTube… but the reality is that multitasking drains your battery exponentially faster than doing one activity at a time.

If you really want to extend your laptop battery life, only use it to complete the most important task you need done now.

6. Clean Your Battery

If you have a laptop with a removable battery, odds are that dust and debris collect in its enclosure. Every so often, take the battery out to wipe it down with a dry cloth. It is a good idea to clean the contacts while you are at it.

7. Store Your Laptop in a Cool Environment

Heat can permanently weaken the charge your battery is able to hold. Clean the laptop fan regularly so that it can keep your machine cool, and be sure to store your laptop somewhere away from excessive heat.

8. Let Your Battery Die

Every so often, let your laptop battery completely die, and then give it a full charge with the power left off. This has been shown to extend laptop battery life.